Zack Gresham has his life before him – he’s taking one last motorcycle trip across the country before his sophomore year at Yale. But when he picks up a teenaged hitchhiker named Bobby, his life changes forever. Bobby first steals all his valuables, and then, when he catches up with him, convinces Zack that he’s on a mission from God to steal the prized Sword of Damascus before the evil forces can get hold of it – and then reveals that “he” is in fact a girl named Roberta. They succeed, but then Zack is arrested by the FBI, and finds that Roberta has swindled him, and is in fact a jewel thief named Darby Fitzgerald. His one chance of getting out of jail and redeeming his life is to go to Split, Croatia where Darby is hiding out, track her down and find out to whom she sold the priceless relic. But then he falls in love…will he choose his heart or his freedom, and can he find a way to keep both?
ZACK’S CHOICE is a mystery full of twists and turns, with new revelations in almost every chapter. Zack is a likeable guy with a good heart, even if he doesn’t always think things through. There are some amusing moments that lighten the plot a bit, too, like Darby twitting Zack about his jail nickname.
The plot fails, however, on the consistent gullibility of nearly everyone in the story. Zack falls for Bobby/Darby’s first tale unbelievably easily – so unbelievably that even he can’t understand later why he did so. Even after her betrayal, he’s willing to trust her, even to love her and consider throwing everything away for her – again – surprisingly quickly. Darby, meanwhile, is quite willing to trust him later, too, even after having betrayed him multiple times. Neither of them (naturally) stop to think about the morality and/or potential consequences of their actions beyond the most facile rationalizations. Even the FBI are willing to risk quite a bit on Zack, without, it seems, even reasonably adequate security. The story also lacks emotional force – neither Zack’s feeling of betrayal nor his love affair with Darcy is quite convincingly realistic.
ZACK’S CHOICE has some really appealing potential, and is full of interesting plot twists, but could benefit from a bit more believability and emotional depth.
Reviewed by Catherine Langrehr for IndieReader